NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Google is continuing its push to make its services accessible for people with lower-end mobile devices or slow internet connections after it introduced Google Go, a data-friendly search app.

The app was first spotted in beta in August — when it was known as Search Lite — and now it has been released for select Android devices (here).

At just 5MB the app won’t take up huge amounts of space on a device — that’s important because cheaper devices that are popular in emerging markets have limited capacity — while it includes offline support and caters to intermittent internet connections, two other factors that affect users in India (its primary target country) and other emerging markets.

Photo courtesy of Highways England.